I was stuck in a couple of lines today.  Almost back-to-back.  And I was late for most of my activities at work today because of that. But I didn’t mind and I didn’t fuss.  And I’m really glad for that.

I was working “from home” on a remote connection to work and needed to pop out “for a minute” and planned to be back quickly.

Puppy

The first one today was when I picked up my pup from the kennel.  It’s normally a 5-minute task.  Not this time around… there was a cat lady just ahead of me, and she had an anecdote for every question or statement the lady at the checkout till made.

O yep, and the lady at the till was a cat lady too.

30 minutes later I had my dog.

I didn’t fuss because after awhile it was a challenge to see how many ways I could mouth the letters O.M.G in my head without breaking into laughter.  I had a calypso version going full brunt when my turn came about.

Grocery

Then, after dropping puppy off at home, I went to the grocery store.  And after shopping, happened upon (and was next in line behind) lady-who-looks-up-every-item-in-the-weekly-flier.  I mean, before the let the cashier take an item, she had to find it in the weekly store flier she brought with her.  I don’t know why.

And her debit card failed to work after everything was rung up, so we had to wait for a manager to some round to set up something.  I don’t know what.

I didn’t mind the grocery store wait, because I had my grandson with me and we talked and played and the time was precious.  Sure, I had colleagues at work waiting for me to log back online, and I’m planning to scrape the ground bowing forgiveness, but it’ll be worth it.

Parking Lot

Then there was the parking lot.  One particularly significant event took place that told me that all the lack of fussing while waiting was definitely for a good reason.

I was almost at the truck, with my goods and grandson in the cart.  A man started to quickly back out of the spot I was walking past.

Startled, I pushed my cart and grandson forward past the back of his car.  He did see me and hit the brakes hard.  I wasn’t in any real danger.

Still, my heart raced – and I still can’t think about this without choking up.

What happened?

At the same time the man in the car started quickly backing up, a little boy had broken free from his young mother’s grasp.  The boy was about 4 years old.

He was too small to have been seen by the man.  And the mother had been crouching, leaning forward to try to grab the boy.   She also would not have been seen by the man backing out of the spot.

The only reason certain tragedy was averted was because he happened to see me in the exact spot I was in and had stopped to avoid hitting me.

The tragedy would not have been the man’s fault.  After all, he could not have known these two were out of his line of sight.

The tragedy would not have been the young mother’s fault.  Children are wiggly little creatures when they want to be.

The tragedy would not have been the boy’s fault.  At four years old, he hadn’t the experience to foresee the danger he had put himself and mother in.

And, the tragedy was NOT averted because of some quick and clever thoughts racing through my brain.  I didn’t even know the situation had happened until it had passed.

So why am I writing this?

I wish to thank One who placed the cat lady and the coupon lady at the lines at just the right times to put me in the just the right place and time… and also for allowing me to see how the pieces fit in this particular puzzle today.

My bowing and scraping at work tomorrow will be done with humility and thankfulness.